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Your Investment in Signs and Markers
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Current sign design is not consistant from catalog
to catalog. Most signs and tags do not follow the new ANSI standards.
The result is a jumble of dissimilar signs and signs that are not
read.
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Imagine this scenario. You go into your boss. You
say, look, I’ve got some good news. We have a $3 million investment in equipment
that we didn’t know we ever had. It’s our safety signs, tags, warning labels.
Yet, here is the bad news. We never did any research on this investment,
we are still buying designs that date from the 40’s and I am quite sure
that most everyone either ignores them or doesn’t understand them.
Signs, tags or labels represent a large and hidden expense for any
plant. This is a huge asset that must be managed better. The investment
in signs, for example, for a pulp mill (including installation and engineering)
can be over $3,000,000. When you consider this investment over many mills,
the combined corporate investment in signs, tags and labels is immense.
Knowing the scope of this investment, it is surprising that safety and plant
managers have not demanded better performance. No doubt, an equal investment
in plant equipment would be subject to careful scrutiny. Plants have undergone
countless upgrades and modernization's over the last 75 years yet signs
and sign designs have not kept up.
Part of the problem with existing safety signs and labels has always been
expediency. Sign manufacturers expediently copy each other's designs and
sign customers expediently order from the latest catalog that crosses their
desk. The fastest way for a plant to solve a safety problem is to just label
over it. By the same token, it would be foolish to mistake poor design for
the ease with which existing warning signs, tags or labels are now ignored.
They can be improved. They are the front line defense against unsafe practices
and it is unconscionable not to use them to warn effectively.
For a free safety sign evaluation, a plant walk-down or even help with your
P&ID take-offs, please call us up. We offer turnkey installations of
pipe markers and safety signs. Let us show how to get the most from your
sign and marker budget.
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